Campaigners claim that Lord Penrose was prevented from considering the subject of compensation by the government, and it is something they now want addressed.

But Treasury minister Ruth Kelly denied that Lord Penrose had been hampered in any way. ‘If you look at the letter he put out at the time of the publication of the report he said his brief was wide,’ she told Radio 4’s Money Box programme.

‘He was free to interpret his brief in the manner he saw fit. He chose to interpret his report to be a non-adversarial approach to examining the issues.’